Junkyard blast injures 2 boys, police find 700 detonators

SSP Sacchi Ghildiyal confirmed that they have recovered 700 detonators.

After an explosion in a junkyard in Loni area of Ghaziabad on Saturday evening led to two children suffering serious injuries, the Ghaziabad police said they had stumbled upon 700 detonators.

On Saturday evening, an explosion at a junkyard owned by a scrap-dealer in Loni led to his sons being severely injured, police said. The scrap dealer — identified as Ram Prakash — has been arrested for questioning. His two sons — Rinku (13) and Shivam (10) — are recuperating in a private hospital, police said.

SSP Sacchi Ghildiyal confirmed that they have recovered 700 detonators.

“The final report in the matter hasn’t arrived. But we have confirmed that the blast was caused by these detonators,” she said.
Ghildiyal added that different intelligence teams, including the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and teams from Delhi, had arrived at the spot after the incident.

Police sources said they were trying to establish if the detonators were intended for use in mining or for setting off bombs. “Ram Prakash has claimed that he receives the junk from Nangloi and on Sunday a truck had arrived with these detonators. During questioning he told police that he was in the process of smashing the detonators to extract copper from them, when the blast took place,” a senior police officer said.

After the blast on Saturday, locals in the area alerted police. When police officers conducted a search of the premises, they found the 700 detonators, similar to the one that had caused the blast in the junkyard.

Police sources said they had detained another scrap-dealer from Nangloi on Monday for further questioning.

“After the blast, panic spread in the area. We have deployed additional personnel in the area to ensure that no untoward incident takes place,” a senior police officer said.